Federal authorities are deporting three illegal immigrants out of Wyoming after one was caught with 170 pounds of marijuana and the other two were driving drunk.
Arnulfo Perez-Gomez, 31, of Huehuetenango, Guatemala, was sentenced last week to six months in federal prison for illegal reentry into the United States. He’s to be deported after that, according to a statement Wednesday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson on Monday ordered the deportation of two more men convicted of illegal reentry: Margarito Sanchez-Velazquez, 37, of Chapultenango, Mexico, and Vitaliano Garcia-Mendez, 49, of Oaxaca, Mexico.
170 Pounds Of Marijuana
Perez-Gomez, also known as Eduardo Martin Sales, was caught in a vehicle hauling 170 pounds of marijuana through Wyoming’s Sweetwater County on Aug. 3, according to court documents filed in Rock Springs Circuit Court.
Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Clancy Gines was monitoring traffic on Interstate 80 outside Green River, Wyoming, the morning of Aug. 3 when he noticed an SUV going 80 mph in the 75 mph zone, the evidentiary affidavit says.
When Gines pulled the driver over, the stench of raw marijuana streamed from the open window, the trooper observed.
The three men in the car couldn’t speak English and had no identification cards, he added. They said they were from Guatemala and had ties to California.
One of the men, Raul Martin Lopez, ran off on foot through the sagebrush. Authorities found him later.
When troopers searched the SUV they found several large duffel bags in it, which in turn contained large, vacuum-sealed packages of a green leafy substance that tested presumptive positive for marijuana, the affidavit says.
The plants weighed in at 170.3 pounds, Gines wrote.
And In Gillette …
Sanchez-Velazquez had been in Gillette for a couple years, his court file indicates.
He was charged with drunken driving in April 2022 after giving a breath-alcohol reading of 0.162%. He was later convicted. That year he was sentenced to unsupervised probation, fined and told to complete treatment by Dec. 1, 2022. He was later placed on a new term of probation after he violated his terms, court documents say.
In January of this year, Sanchez-Velazquez was caught driving with his license canceled and no insurance, says his court file, which also notes that he was convicted of a DUI in 2015.
Emblem, Wyoming
Garcia-Mendez had been living in Emblem, Wyoming, on June 28 of this year when Big Horn County Sheriff’s Deputy Seth Hoblit was called to respond to a report that a driver hit a delineator post on Highway 30, says his court affidavit.
The deputy responded to the area and found a silver Ford Ranger crawling to a stop in the middle of the highway. When he pulled the vehicle over, he noticed “numerous” empty Busch Light cans in the truck bed, plus several more in the cab, wrote Hoblit in the affidavit.
The cab reeked of alcohol. The driver “stared at me through the truck” window, wrote the deputy.
Garcia-Mendez, the driver, spoke some English but when he exited the truck, Hoblit learned the man couldn’t balance.
“I asked if he went off the road and hit a pole,” wrote Hoblit. “He said maybe.”
The deputy asked how many beers the man had consumed.
“He said maybe 20,” wrote Hoblit.
After Hoblit took Garcia-Mendez to the jail, the man gave consent for a breath-alcohol test and gave two results: a 0.183% reading and a 0.171% reading, the affidavit says.
ICE
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) credited federal prosecutors for the upcoming deportations, in a statement sent Wednesday to Cowboy State Daily.
“The decision to remove these criminal individuals from our country is a necessary step to protect innocent civilians and preserve the public safety principles we stand for,” said Kelei Walker, acting Field Office Director of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations team based in Denver. “We extend our deepest gratitude to the U.S. Attorney's Office for their tireless dedication and exceptional work in bringing this case to a just conclusion. Let this serve as a reminder that no one is above the law.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
